


Fate Will Not Kill You

by Gothams_Only_Wolf



Series: That's Just Life [12]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Compliant, Final Fantasy VII Rare Pair Week, Gen, M/M, Platonic Soulmates, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-22 02:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13754487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gothams_Only_Wolf/pseuds/Gothams_Only_Wolf
Summary: The Strife family knows that soulmates come in either Ruin or Prosperity and have passed this along for generations.Day 6 of FFVII Rarepair Week: Meeting in Another World/Crossovers





	Fate Will Not Kill You

**Author's Note:**

> I, uh, I actually have no idea what this is, only that it sorta matches the prompt?
> 
> Enjoy!

* * *

Soulmates come in two varieties and they've been linked through careful study to the properties of a person's last name. 

The Strife family knows that soulmates come in either Ruin or Prosperity and have passed this along for generations.

* * *

Cloud knows by the time he's six that he's not supposed to take off his shirt because of how many names there are written across his chest. He likes all of them, no matter what color makes his Mama flinch when she looks to see if they're still there. 

He's learning how to read backwards so that he can write them down when he's old enough.

* * *

By the time he's eight, Cloud's figured most of the names are in the person's handwriting. 

On the Eastern Continent and beyond, Cloud has only three. One of them is from Wutai (kanji and he can't even read it, not yet) in the bright white of platonic love and that another is from Cosmo Canyon because it's a bright pink (familial love) paw print; only Firewolves have souls and paws, after all. 

The last one is dark grey at the front, which technically means that person is dead but the grey's only a little piece of the name that eventually turns the deep blue of tempered affection. It's the heaviest name out of all of them, meaning that one is the oldest. 

On the Western Continent there are quite a few names that he can either read or make out due to the similar writing. 

One is from Corel, another from Gongaga (rich saffron, bright purple and, much to Cloud's horror, dark grey that fades to black) and yet another is from all the way up in Icicle (bright pink that shifts to berry pink to dark grey that fades to black). Two are from Nibelheim (steady berry pink for the first) but one is much darker and therefore older. 

It's also the only one that shades so strongly from blue admiration to green hatred and is so heavily saturated that Cloud knows this name is a Ruin. 

One is from beyond the Nibel range but not close enough to Icicle and is second heaviest with sky blue compassion and sunny yellow support.

* * *

It's the Corel name that he knows best, however, and that's due to the fact that it's gold. Mama says gold's lucky, once-in-lifetime love that'll span across the stars, and that he should kiss that person most often.

* * *

It's not until years later that the names and the colors begin to fit into his life. 

Zack, with his steady support and friendship, matches his colors to a T. 

"So you're that bright red mark," Zack's sweet, playful without being overbearing and thoughtful. 

"Bright red?!?!" Cloud squeaks out because bright means the emotion's constantly felt. 

"Unconditional love, though at the end there's..." Grief, Cloud finishes silently for both of them. 

"Magenta. It's cause yours ends in black." Cloud finishes with a whisper. 

"Oh. Can... Can I see?" 

"Okay, but," Cloud looks at his soulmate's violet eyes, "you have to find somewhere where ShinRa never looks." 

"Hmm. I think I've got a place."

* * *

Cloud's covered his hair and tucked it under a beanie, wearing thick layered clothing and without his badge. 

Zack somehow manages to sneak just the two of them out on what amounts to a grocery run for a SOLDIER Second; he's added Cloud as his attaché to keep ShinRa from looking too closely. They sneak back in through the slums and deep into Sector Five. 

The church is occupied and Zack is talking to a dark-haired man, a Turk in a blue suit. He can hear the words if he listens hard enough. "He's my soul-mate, Tseng, and he asked for a spot clear of ShinRa viewing. No, he's not AVALANCHE or a rival, just my brightest soulmate. Please? We'll keep watch, if you insist." 

"... Very well." 

Tseng glances at him as he goes, Cloud only reaching for Zack after he's gone. 

"There's a little bit of a rectory left, should be as private as it gets here in Midgar." Zack admits. 

The rectory still has a door and a roof and walls, so yes, about as private as it gets. 

Cloud strips his upper half and then turns to face Zack. He's shivering slightly from being bare in winter but Zack... 

Zack's jaw has dropped open out of shock. 

"Oh. Oh Cloud, there's so many of them." Zack's thumb runs gently over his own and then begins, somehow, to read the rest. "I can tell you that I know three, possibly four." 

"Which—?" He can't help the hopeful tone, not after so many years of knowing but being unable to search. 

"Sephiroth, of course, but also the kanji and the one in pink." 

"What's their name? The one in kanji?" Cloud breathes out. 

"That's Princess Yuffie Kisaragi." 

"I... Really?" 

"Yes, really. The one in light pink's my other soulmate, Aerith." Zack's amused but gentle as he traces over Aerith's. 

"And the last one?" Cloud almost can't bring himself to ask but does anyway. 

"Lives in Corel, has a sick wife; Barret, if I remember right." Zack muses as he traces his eyes over the pink paw print, the berry pink, the deep blue with a grey beginning and the sunny yellow 'n sky blue names that remain. 

The gold one, the one that's never changed in color or intensity. 

"His other soulmate, I guess." Cloud hums. He's not going to take Barret away, not by choice, when they're happy together. "Wait, sick?" 

"Mm-hmm. I got him meds and that's how I know." Zack's fingers are flexing even as his eyes trace so Cloud takes his hand and tells him it's okay. 

"I know there's a lot but don't be afraid to touch them. No one else has seen them aside from my Mutti." Cloud murmurs as Zack's fingers brush over the heavier lines. 

"Do you want me to ask around for the heavier ones? I'll get Rigel to ask, he's subtle about this sort of thing." 

"SOLDIER Second Rigel?! Zack—" 

"Rigel's already known to have multiples like you. Most of them are platonic but adding two more on him in the long-run won't hurt. What'd you do for your Physical?" 

"Makeup over every name but yours and Tifa's 'cause then they can't pin the rest." 

"Did you leave..." Sephiroth's, obviously, because Sephiroth would have his in bright red, most likely. 

"I may have covered it very thinly and let them draw their own conclusions when they swiped my right side collarbone with alcohol." 

"It's..." Zack's thumb almost covers the nearly mako green hatred but he looks saddened by it rather than fearful. 

"Too green, I know. I don't even know him yet and so much of it is green."

* * *

Aerith is both a delight and a somber reminder that not everyone has as many soulmates as Cloud does, even if over half are platonic in nature. 

"Pink, huh?" Soft green eyes tease him even as her presence warms her name. 

"Pink, berry pink and, umm, grey-to-black." He says that last part quickly but still accepts her hug when she offers it. 

"Oh. That would explain the magenta then, wouldn't it?" She's petting his unruly spikes and Cloud never wants to let go. Zack joins them and he's blissful for half a second. "You're bright red for the most part and magenta but... there's also..." 

"What?" 

"It's silver at the edges."

Memory loss. 

"Zack?" 

Zack pulls aside his sweater to reveal the same, only thicker. 

"I don't want to forget, I _don't_."

* * *

Cloud looks down at his chest in the days after defeating Sephiroth and strokes the two that have faded to full black on the end, though now he remembers them and their sacrifices. 

"Cloud, we're about to start clean—Is that my name?!?" Yuffie nearly shrieks, skidding to a halt just before his uncovered chest and looking at her name in pure white. "Oh. I thought it might be..." 

"Red?" He asks quietly, suspecting that nearly all of his soulmates have bright red versions of his name on them. 

"Well, yeah. Yours is bright red and my Dad nearly fainted when it only got heavier. Here." Yuffie tugs down the neck of her sweater and Cloud understands why she chose it now; his name's a deep, rich red that looks almost like blood and it's stark against the skin of her neck and collarbone.

"I'm sorry if I caused you any trouble." 

"Nah. Dad said that at least you loved me for me, horrible manners and all." Yuffie chirrups before she spots Sephiroth. "He's... really green." 

"Yeah." 

"Wait, wait is Barret—" 

"Shhh! They-" 

"Yuffie, we sent you to get Cloud ten—" 

The rest of AVALANCHE crests the rise and sees Cloud holding hands with Yuffie. 

His scarred chest doesn't hide the names but only seems to highlight them. 

Vincent, though normally quiet, murmurs, "All of our names are on your chest." 

"Mm, they've been there since birth. They fit, by the way, down to the last color, before you protest yours." Cloud agrees easily enough. 

"I like the fact that you have mine at all," Nanaki replies, his cool nose touching the paw-print before he lays his head on Cloud's left calf. 

Vincent takes his left shoulder, pressing against his own mark (cutting along Cloud's left ribs) with his gauntlet. 

Tifa takes his right thigh and wraps her arm around him to pet at her mark on his right pec. 

Cid takes his right shoulder, a gloved hand coming to rest on the sprawling writing of their only pilot decorating Cloud's right ribs. 

Barret pauses at the empty space on the other side of Cloud's lap. 

Cloud's patient enough to wait, having learned a few things in putting himself back together with Tifa's help. 

When Barret sinks down on his left thigh, Cloud's suffused with a warmth that he's sure the others feel. 

"Gold, huh?" Barret gruffly says as he traces his name over and over again with shaking fingertips. 

"I'm guessing everyone's is red, then? Yuffie's is blood red." 

"Mine is red, though you'll have a tough time finding it amongst my fur." 

"Red," Vincent agrees. 

"Pink, like our ribbons." Cid disagrees, "Father figure, Ah think." 

"Red," Tifa sighs, "with a silver outline." 

Everyone turns to Barret, who scrubs at the back of his neck and murmurs, "Gold with a red outline." 

All five coo at the two of them and Cloud curses his family's tendency towards full-body blushes.

* * *

Cloud can't stop kissing Barret once he starts, honestly, and he doesn't want to either.

**Author's Note:**

> Comment, complain, ect.


End file.
